NFL Pick: Texans vs. Chargers

Monday Night Football betting action finishes up this week from Qualcomm Stadium, where the Houston Texans are going to hope to get off on the right foot against the San Diego Chargers.

The Texans have one of the biggest question marks in the league right now in the form of RB Arian Foster. Foster continues to contend that he is ready to go for the season, but there is a real chance that he might not be playing in Week 1. If that’s the case, RB Ben Tate is going to have to have a huge game both as a rusher and possibly as a receiver, just as is the case with Foster. QB Matt Schaub can’t afford any major problems this year, as he is in one of these make or break seasons where he will either help bring Houston to the next level, or will cause the team to sink perhaps even out of the postseason. WR Andre Johnson is back and looks dominating, and he should be helped out by the growth of some of his young receivers. Adding WR DeAndre Hopkins as the second receiver was a mammoth pick in the NFL Draft, and there is a good chance that he could be the Offensive Rookie of the Year when push comes to shove. DE JJ Watt has to be salivating over the idea of playing against such a porous offensive line, but in the end, he doesn’t have his line mate DE Antonio Smith, who is suspended for this game.

The Bolts have all sorts of problems coming into this season. They are running out of wide receivers for QB Philip Rivers to throw the ball to for sure. WR Vincent Brown and WR Robert Meachem seem to be the only healthy viable options at this point, as WR Danario Alexander is out for the season and WR Eddie Royal and WR Malcom Floyd both got dinged up in the preseason. That said, Rivers is going to be asked to throw the ball a ton in new Head Coach Mike McCoy’s offense. He should be getting over 4,000 yards this season, and he is going to need to do so behind an offensive line that just completely failed to open up holes for all of the running backs last season. RB Ryan Mathews has to be better than he was, and RB Danny Woodhead could step in and help out as a receiver out of the backfield as well.

For as much as we don’t really believe in the Chargers at this point, there is no doubt that they are one of the sharpest teams that we see on the docket in Week 1. San Diego is one of those bipolar teams that could beat some of the big boys, and we think that there is a great opportunity that the team, in spite of its flaws, is going to figure out how to score just enough to take down a very overrated Houston side.

Adam Markowitz

is a staff writer living in the Orlando area. He has covered NFL, MLB, college football, CFL, AFL, NBA, college basketball, NASCAR, golf, tennis, and the NHL for a number of various outlets in his career, and he has been published by a number of different media outlets, including the Orlando Sentinel and the Wall Street Journal.